


Her Cat

by tothineownelfbetrue



Category: Disenchantment (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Angst, But there are times when he wishes he was, F/M, Freeform, I do actually love these two really, Immortality sucks, Internal Thoughts, Luci isn't, One-Sided Attraction, POV Third Person Limited, Pining, Present Tense, Rambling, ennui, everyone thinks Luci is a cat, fear of taking risks, losing the chance at something, minor/implied Bean/Elfo, missing out, watching someone else take the chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26387953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothineownelfbetrue/pseuds/tothineownelfbetrue
Summary: Everyone in Dreamland just thinks Luci is her cat.  It's annoying.It's more annoying that 'Bean's cat' is all he'll ever be to her.or: that weird fic where Luci is afraid to take chances.
Relationships: Bean | Tiabeanie/Luci (Disenchantment)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	Her Cat

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bit of freeform writing from Luci's POV. I'm going to do some actual more involved Luci/Bean at some point.

Luci’s not an animal. Regardless of how anyone pictures him, he’s fully capable. He’s the smartest person in the room at all times and sadly it’s not because he’s the most brilliant of demons but because mortals are so stupid, so set in their ways. It makes him superior to them. He’s aware of it at all times.

It’s a good thing people mistake him for a cat. In doing so, they tend to assume he’s ultimately untouchable. He’s not some pathetic lapdog who needs to define himself by other people. 

It’s annoying sometimes, maybe, to have it implied that he’s merely Bean’s cat. But it’s as close to the truth as their silly mortal minds can comprehend so it’s a role he’s willing to play.

-

Bean is a wild thing. Even more than anyone else Luci has ever met, she exudes a need for freedom and a yearning deep inside that makes her reach for more, demand more. Luci sees the spark of rebellion in her and fans it into a flame. He watches her blaze up, bright. Brighter. She’s an inferno in the making.

All the while, she draws him in and he creeps closer and closer. It’s not like there’s any danger. Fire is nothing to a demon.

-

Except it is. 

-

It’s not Bean’s tendency toward disaster and wanton destruction that proves to be Luci’s undoing, though that is a part of it. No, it turns out that it’s her smile that does it. It’s the way she looks when she’s half-asleep, the way she laughs when she’s drunk. The warmth of her hand on his fur, stroking him lazily. He doesn’t try to bat her away when she does it anymore because even if he’s not a cat, he’s still _her cat_ to the world.

-

He doesn’t purr though. That would just be stupid.

-

When he looks back, much later. He can’t pinpoint the moment that it changed. It was a slow shift in the world around him and there’s no single instance he can think of that really set it in motion.

But she looks at him one day. Her eyes are as bright as the clear skies above the ocean.

‘Oh’ Luci thinks.

-

If only he’d seen it coming, he thinks later. If only he’d paid more attention. He’d always done his job so well, corruption of the mortals, that he’d forgotten to think about whether they could get under his skin as well as he got under theirs.

If only. If only.

-

It’s hopeless though. Not because to the world he’s just Bean’s cat, but because the bond tying him with Bean is also very clear and defined. Him trying to step beyond it would be just as stupid as whenever Elfo considers doing so. Elfo’s feelings are a lost cause and Luci knows his are too. He’s a pragmatist, after all. 

It comes with being a demon.

-

He does nothing. He just sits back and watches, as impartial as he can be. The warmth soaks into his fur as he finds himself lying in a patch of sun. When did he get here? Why is this his life?

Luci shuffles, moving out of the way when an actual flesh and blood, whiskers and fur kind of cat appears, ready to take his spot. Luci hisses at it without thinking, like it’s somehow a symbol of all the stupidity in his life. It moves out of his sun patch and goes on with whatever it is that cats do.

He lays back down, eyes half-closed. He doesn’t think about the general hopelessness of the world. He doesn’t think about anything.

He can almost see why cats live like this. It’s not a bad way to spend the slow span of a meaningless existence.

-

He’s not sure why it surprises him. He’s thought he was done with being surprised by anything mortals do, but it turns out… he still can be. Elfo is jubilant and for just a few seconds - a few long, aching seconds - he hates the elf with every dark fiber of his being. It’s not Elfo’s fault, really. Luci knows that.

It just reminds him that despite all his braggary, his cool, confident bad-boy act, that he’s never been the rebel that boring, dreary Elfo somehow is.

He’s never dared. He thinks there was a right moment somewhere, sometime, but he never seized it. Elfo did. That was the difference between them.

His congratulations are more than a little mocking but Elfo scarcely seems to notice. He’s too giddy to care if Luci insults him. Luci always insults him. There’s no reason for the elf to think that there’s anything different this time. It’s not like Elfo can know just what he’s done.

-

“Thanks, Luci,” Bean says to him when they’re alone. Elfo has passed out after a few drinks and it’s just the two of them with their more durable constitutions, sipping at sour wine and watching the sky as it gradually lightens outside the window.

“...for what?” he asks. Then he regrets it because if she’s going to talk to him about her _thing_ with Elfo, he thinks he won’t be able to take it. He doesn’t have a heart, but that doesn’t mean it’s not breaking either. He clamps down on it because that’s all he can do.

She’s quiet for a moment, thoughtful. When Luci looks at her, the expression on her face is so different than Bean of only a year ago, desperate and looking for some release from the mess that was her life. Somewhere along the way she’s matured. It reminds him that she’s mortal.

“Just… for being here. For me. For _us_.” She doesn’t have to gesture to the sleeping elf. "I don't know what we'd do without you..."

Luci twitches his tail. “Don’t mention it.” He says.

Then Bean draws him into her arms, a crushing, vital embrace and Luci feels the urge to claw and squirm, like he’s actually a cat, but he doesn’t. He settles into it after a few seconds, lets it envelop him. 

She falls asleep holding him and only then does he wiggle free of her arms. He should stand up, like a proper demon, but instead he crawls across the bed on all fours to sit by the window until the new daylight brings the humans out of their houses to go about their days.

  
  


-

Merkimer isn’t the company he wants, but somehow the man always winds up there. He’d chase him off, but Bean and Elfo are preoccupied with their planning and Luci needs someone to torment, to take his mind off his troubles.

His jibes are half-hearted, his gaze never as intense as he can make it. His eyes follow the same fixed point over and over.

“You love her, don’t you?” The man turned pig asks him, far too perceptive for someone as wholly ridiculous as he is. Luci’s not sure when everyone in his life became so much smarter, so much more capable. Somewhere along the line, everyone has grown up and out of his reach. Even this fool will soon outgrow him. He’s a static point.

Luci doesn’t answer the question. He watches the play of light on Bean’s hair, the way her expression falls into a carefree smile. She twines her fingers in small green ones and Luci feels himself slowly unravel.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He says. “I’m just her cat.”

-


End file.
